Executive control of (impulsive) action
Frederick Verbruggen, University of Exeter, UK
Cognitive control theories attribute action control and goal-directed decision-making to executive
processes that inhibit responses and adjust behavior online. In the last two decades, cognitive control
and response inhibition have received much attention across research domains. Cognitive
psychologists and neuroscientists have explored the cognitive and neural mechanisms of action
control, developmental scientists have studied the ‘rise and fall’ of control capacities across the life
span, and clinical researchers have examined correlations between individual differences in action
control and behaviors such as substance abuse, overeating, and risk taking. In the first part of my
presentation, I will provide a selective review of my recent behavioral and computational work on
response inhibition. In the second part, I will focus on the limitations of executive (action) control. My
main aim is to demonstrate that response inhibition and other forms of action control rely on an
interplay between many processes that take place on different time scales.